96 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



were all of the younger generation and could speak 

 English very well, what it meant. " Just a shower," 

 they answered. By the time we had rowed half- 

 way back along the Doon it had become so dark 

 that we could hardly see across the bay. This 

 seemed to increase the voracity of the fish, and we 

 hooked one monster after another as fast as we 

 could haul them up. Just as I was in the act of 

 landing one the boat was struck by a blinding 

 deluge of rain. The sea rose directly, and the 

 wind swept the crests of the waves off and twirled 

 them into stinging showers of white spray. Our 

 crew, consisting of four strong young fellows, pulled 

 away at the oars vigorously, but made no progress 

 so far as I could note by such jutting crags as were 

 visible through the mirk of the storm. By-and-by 

 they made the boat creep along, and in a while 

 we came to a cave in which the St. Kildans hoped 

 to find shelter from the wind and waves. Instead, 

 however, of proving a haven of safety, it turned 

 out to be a veritable death-trap. The huge waves 

 lifted our wee craft and flung it forward with such 

 force that it looked perilously like being jammed 

 into the crevice in which the little cave ended. 



Our boatmen had hitherto been speaking in 

 English, but the exciting character of the situation 

 soon sent them back upon their Gaelic, in which 

 tongue they yelled at each other furiously. One 

 of them lost his head so far that, instead of keeping 

 his oar against the side of the cave in order to push 

 fche boat off, drew it in and held it straight up, 

 mast fashion, and in we went on the next roller. 

 I made sure that her bows would jam under an 

 overhanging crag and that the succeeding wave 

 would fill her, a disaster which would undoubtedly 

 have befallen us had not my brother jumped up 



